


A Sprinkling of Kindness

by isabeau25



Series: The Five Lions Cafe [4]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Finals week is hard, Gen, never any romance ever coffee shop au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-17
Updated: 2019-01-17
Packaged: 2019-10-11 21:59:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,175
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17455034
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/isabeau25/pseuds/isabeau25
Summary: Sometimes all it takes to get through finals week is a little bit of extra help. The whipped cream and sprinkles don't hurt either.





	A Sprinkling of Kindness

**Author's Note:**

> A little bit of a spoiler for the series since Lance hasn't made an official appearance yet. At this point in the story, he is one of Shiro's regular customers (and Hunk's biggest fan). 
> 
> Many thanks to [Eastofthemoon](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Eastofthemoon/pseuds/Eastofthemoon) for the prompt.

“How many cups has he had?” Shiro leaned on the barista bar next to Ryner, his voice low.

Ryner glanced over at the young man at the corner table, mostly hidden behind stacks of text books. The window behind him was dark and splattered with rain, but the string lights hung across the beams of the porch twinkled cheerfully in the gloom.

“He’s on his sixth cup, plus the white mocha I compted him when he came up for his fourth refill looking like he was about to cry,” Ryner shook her head.

“I think it might be time to cut Lance off,” Shiro folded his arms over his chest, “next time he comes up, offer him tea or hot chocolate on us.”

“Will do,” Ryner nodded, “we should spike his tea with chamomile or something and see if we can get him to take a nap.”

“Maybe as a parting gift on his way out,” Shiro laughed softly, “what is he working on?”

“He’s studying for finals, but I’m not sure which ones,” Ryner squinted, trying to make out the titles on the stacks of text books, “it probably wouldn’t hurt to get some food into him. I don’t think he’s eaten since he got here, and that was right after lunch.”

Lance reached up blindly for his mug, balanced somewhat precariously on top of a stack of books. He tried to take a drink, but upon finding it was empty, let his head fall to the table with a thump. Ryner and Shiro winced.

“Definitely time for a snack,” Shiro straightened from the counter, “he’s been doing peppermint white mochas lately, hasn’t he?”

“On the rare occasion that he gets something besides a drip, yes,” Ryner nodded, “peppermint white chocolate hot chocolate, then?”

“Yeah, thanks,” Shiro headed in the direction of the large soup pots behind the counter, “I’ll get him some soup, and we’ll see if we can get him at least a little de-stressed.”

Shiro opened the lid of the warmer pot, and took a deep breath of the warm, spicy smell. Hunk wanted to do something new every day for their soups, but they were always so popular that customers wanted to have them again. Shiro had finally talked him into doing a weekly rotation based on the season.

Today was borscht or cinnamon spiced sweet potato. They were well into the evening and out of borscht, but there was still enough sweet potato soup for another cup or two. Shiro ladled out a cup and dropped in a double helping of maple croutons. Hunk had had to make extra croutons because the staff kept snacking on them.

“Hey Lance,” Shiro came to stand in front of the table, a wall of books between he and the young man.

Lance pushed himself up with effort, blinking tiredly at Shiro, “hey Shiro. Are you guys trying to lock up? I can get this stuff out of here.”

“Nope, you’re good. We’re open late during finals, so you’ve got a couple hours still,” Shiro reached over the pile of books to set the cup of soup in front of Lance, “do me a favor and eat that though. We’re trying to finish off the last of it so we can clean the pot.”

Lance gave him a suspicious look, but the soup smelt good, and he hadn’t eaten since lunch. He picked up the spoon and dug in.

“Hunk is a genius,” Lance sighed happily in-between spoonfuls.

“I know,” Shiro grinned and slid onto the bench next to Lance, stretching out his legs, “that’s why I hired him.”

While Lance ate, Shiro eyed the piles of books. There were a handful of texts, Introduction to Chinese Literature, Ecology of Coastal Wetlands, and Organic Chemistry. The rest were library books, including a pile of Monkey King comic books.

“So how many finals do you have left?” Shiro asked.

“Finished the paper for lit and the research report for bio, but that,” he waved in the direction of the chemistry book, “is an abomination to mankind.”

Shiro snorted softly and reached for the chemistry book, flipping it open.

“I had to take a level two chemistry, but everyone said p-chem is awful,” Lance let his head fall back down on the table, “I like biology though, so I thought organic chemistry might be okay, but it’s not. It’s awful! And if I don’t get at least a B on the final, I’ll fail the class, and it’s too late to withdraw and get a refund and I can’t afford to lose a whole class worth of tuition, but none of this makes any sense at all and…”

“Whoa, Lance, slow down, buddy,” Shiro set the book down and started rubbing circles on Lance’s back when his voice dissolved into sniffles, “it’s going to be okay.”

“No, it won’t,” Lance pushed himself up and rubbed his eyes on his sleeve, “I can’t figure it out, and I’m going to ruin everything.”

“No, you’re not,” Shiro squeezed his shoulder, “because I happened to have staffed my café with geniuses.”

As if on que Ryner appeared at the table, setting a mug piled high with whipped cream and topped with blue glittering stars in front of Lance. Lance blinked at it dumbly, then looked between Shiro and Ryner.

“On the house to make up for cutting you off from caffeine,” Shiro grinned at him.

“… I’m cut off?” Lance gave him an utterly confused look.

“Definitely,” Shiro nodded, “but Ryner knows every science known to humanity, so I suspect she can help you more then another round of caffeine.”

“Only a slight hyperbola,” Ryner gave Shiro an amused look, motioning him up, “about the science, not the coffee. You really don’t need any more.”

Shiro stood, giving Lance’s hair a ruffle before letting Ryner slide into his spot.

Lance looked between the two of them, eyes suspiciously bright before he dropped them to stare down at his glittering drink. He sniffled, rubbed his eyes on his sleeve again, then straightened his shoulders.

“Thank you,” he smiled up at them, still looking a little teary eyed.

“It is my absolute pleasure,’ Ryner smiled back, “drink your hot chocolate while it’s still warm, and give me a few minutes to look over your study guide and text.”

Lance handed the papers and books over to her, then started making his way through the mount of starry whipped cream with a spoon. Shiro left them to it, heading back to the counter.

As he cleaned and organized behind the counter, he kept glancing over at Lance and Ryner out of the corner of his eye, their heads bowed over sheets of paper and books, Lance’s shoulder slowly unhunching. It was a little thing, but it felt good to be able to help someone before they spiraled too far into despair and exhaustion. It really hadn’t taken much.

A laugh burst from Lance, light and easy, and Shiro felt light as well.

Staying open late for finals week was absolutely worth it.

**Author's Note:**

> This is the soup! I haven't tried making it yet, but it looks fantastic: [Cinnamon-Spiced Sweet Potato Soup](https://www.delish.com/cooking/recipe-ideas/recipes/a44437/cinnamon-spiced-sweet-potato-soup-maple-croutons-recipe/)


End file.
